Attributed position

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With attributed position and ascribed status of socially recognized mainly within the social system status or socially defined role of a person referred to with or without regard to personal services. In certain cases, however, personal performance characteristics such as general state of health or special organic ailments can also be determined on the basis of social attribution. (a)

Position and status

Position and status have broadly similar meanings. Karl-Heinz Hillmann (1938–2007), however, is of the opinion that the term “position” compared to the literal translation of the English status term “ascribed status” is to be viewed as the more comprehensive one, since it also includes the social role. (a) On the other hand, Hillmann also speaks of a position status as opposed to a personality-determined status. (b) Here again the term “status” seems to be used as the superordinate one. The position status is obviously linked as a constant status with the exercise of a permanent and comparable professional position, while different characteristics such as income, consumption, education and health status are more difficult to weight.

The differences between position and status emerge from other sources in a similar way. Compared to the status, the professional “position” is highlighted when comparing the meanings. The concept of position is also used to describe the situation and situation in which someone finds themselves in relation to another, which can also mean a range of values ​​(professional or sporting ranking). (a) “Status”, on the other hand, tends to express socially different factors such as “race, education, gender, income etc. a. ", which are considered to be significant for the evaluation of the position of the individual in society. "Status" also characterizes the general state of health or illness as well as the current illness status in the acute phase of an illness (status praesens, status quo). The upscale location that is desired and strived for, with which membership of a certain social class is to be shown to the outside world, is also referred to as “status” (status symbol). (b)

Congenital and Acquired Attribution

A title of nobility is already legitimized at birth (innate ascription). Biological characteristics such as B. Man, woman, child, adult often lead to corresponding social positions. In contrast to this, the social position of a person can also be socially assigned or acquired through personal performance, such as the professional position through training, competitive behavior, etc. (acquired attribution). (c) It can be used in the meaning of the literal translation of the English term as "ascribed status i. e. S. “ . In practice, this distinction according to Georges Devereux (1908–1985) has little meaning. (b)

In practice, a strict distinction cannot be drawn between ascribed and acquired status. Relatives, origins and ethnicity all have an impact on the possibility of acquiring status in the course of life. Citizenship is initially an ascribed status (based on origin or place of birth), but under certain circumstances it is an acquired status (naturalization). The status that is ascribed to people with a migration history in Germany is also influenced by their ethnic or ethnic-national origin. (a) This can be seen in terms such as “Passport German” versus “Biodeutscher” (b) and in phenomena such as discrimination based on name . (c) In the external perception of the “new Germans”, the assigned status often dominates over the acquired status.

Interdisciplinary technology

As interdisciplinary sciences, social psychiatry and social psychology must discuss certain basic problems of sociology and psychiatry or psychology together. The key concept of assignment is reflected in psychiatry in the terms of attribution and in the corresponding attribution theories. It is similar with jurisprudence as a normative science. Points of contact arise, for example, in forensic psychiatry . The competencies of the sanctioning judiciary , which operates with criminal provisions, and the therapeutically oriented subjects are fluid, which can be confirmed not only on the basis of historically different social systems, but also on the basis of findings of ethno-psychiatry , see also the double meaning of sanction as a curative and punitive measure ( opposition word ). Medical and psychological diagnoses as well as legal judgments and sanctions can be viewed as social attributions. (c), (a)

In psychiatry and especially in forensic psychiatry , judicial and medical authorities are jointly active with the help of compulsory treatment in the conceptual double meaning of "sanction", which during National Socialism in the T4 action was particularly disastrous in that it was opposed to political moments medical measures gained the upper hand. Even today there are cases, like that of Gustl Mollath , in which this suspicion persists. (a) Certainly it was a failure on the broadest front, involving not only politics, but also the judiciary and the medical profession. (b)

Change in attributions and attitudes

For a long time, what Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) described as master morality had a stabilizing effect on the social structure .

Due to a change in value that has slowly occurred since the Enlightenment , the importance of the acquired social status has steadily increased. In the course of equality , the importance of the assigned status i. e. S. on the other hand. This led to the adoption of ideologies of advancement . They led u. a. also to a change in the traditionally family-related position of women or to their increased involvement in training and employment. The birth rate in Germany has been falling steadily since 1880. This led to an average of 1 to 2 children per family today. (b)

Cultural factors also determine the change in the ascribed position of young people. The adolescence is in primary cultures through the initial rite ended.

Another type of change and transition is the view of the American sociologist Erving Goffman (1922–1982) that personal character traits , as well as structural features of a person such as the "job", are already anticipated from the first sight and impression can be transformed into a kind of “virtual social identity”. As a rule, they are an expression of positive expectations, which may or may not apply (actual social identity), in that demand and reality differ from one another. However, there are also negative attributions that can degrade or discredit a person and thus damage and tarnish their reputation. One such negative attribute is social stigma, and the process of attributing it is called stigmatization . Even more subtle methods of discrimination are often used here. Examples in history are the witch craze or racism .

literature

  • Ralph Linton : The Study of Man. New York 1936. (German: Mensch, Kultur, Gesellschaft. 1979)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Georges Devereux : Normal and abnormal. Essays on general ethnopsychiatry. First edition, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1974, ISBN 3-518-06390-1 , (a) p. 9, 266–269 on “attributed identity, ascribed status” - pp. 276, 287 on “ organizism ”; (b) p. 269 on tax authority “Aristocrat”; (c) p. 275 f. to Stw. "Healer ( shaman ) and tribal chief".


  2. ^ A b c Karl-Heinz Hillmann : Dictionary of Sociology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 410). 4th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-41004-4 , (a) p. 955 on Lemma “Attributed Position”; (b) p. 839 f. to Lemma “Status”; (c) p. 955 as (a).


  3. ↑ a b FA Brockhaus: Brockhaus Encyclopedia. The big foreign dictionary. 19th edition. Brockhaus Leipzig, Mannheim 2001, ISBN 3-7653-1270-3 , (a) p. 1068 on tax "Position"; (b) p. 1269 on tax “Status”.

  4. ↑ a b c Ulrike Izuora: An ethnological view of status and citizenship in Germany. In: Ursula Bertels: Immigration country Germany: How can integration succeed from an ethnological point of view? (= Practice ethnology ). Waxmann-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8309-3111-9 ,
    (a) pp. 139–150 on Stw. “Influence of ethnic-national factors on ascribed status”;
    (b) p. 147 on head. “Passdeutscher versus Biodeutscher” online p. 147 ;
    (c) p. 146 on head. “Discrimination on the basis of name” online p. 146.
  5. ^ Annette Treibel: New power relations in Germany, a country of immigration? Established and underdog revisited . S. 159. In: Stefanie Ernst, Hermann Korte (Hrsg.): Society processes and individual practice: Lecture series in memory of Norbert Elias . Springer-Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-16317-4 , pp. 145-165.
  6. ^ A b Johannes Siegrist : Textbook of Medical Sociology. 3. Edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-541-06383-1 , (a) pp. 82 f., 228 on stw. “Social status”; (b) p. 33 to district “social norms”.

  7. ↑ a b Uwe Ritzer , Olaf Przybilla : The Mollath Affair. The man who knew too much. The frightening failure of the rule of law. Droemer, 2013, ISBN 978-3-426-27622-8 , (a) p. 111 ff. On stw. “Failure of Politics”; (b) p. 87 ff. on stw. “Failure of justice”; P. 163 ff. On the “Failure of Doctors”.


  8. ↑ Mario Erdheim : The social production of unconsciousness. An introduction to the ethno-psychoanalytical process. 2nd Edition. (= Suhrkamp pocket book science. 456). Frankfurt am Main, 1988, ISBN 3-518-28065-1 , p. 284 ff. On taxation “Initiation”.
  9. ↑ Erving Goffman : Stigma. About techniques of coping with damaged identity. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975. (English 1963, p. 9 f.)
  10. ^ Asmus Finzen : Stigma mental illness. How to deal with prejudice, blame and discrimination. Psychiatrie-Verlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-88414-575-3 , pp. 26, 30, 162 on "Discrimination".